Some of you might be a little confused by today’s title. If you are passionate about Scripture and have read about and studied the armor of God before, then you might be thinking: “I thought it was the breastplate of righteousness, not justice.” And you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. But you’re not entirely right either. And that’s what we need to talk about today. Justice is a primary theme that runs from the front of the Bible to the back, and those of us who follow Jesus are called to do justice. Unfortunately, this call to justice can be obscured by the language we use. So today, let’s talk about the breastplate of justice/righteousness and what it means for our lives.
The Armor of God Sermon Series: The Belt of Truth
Today we begin our deep dive into the pieces of armor that make up the “armor of God” from Ephesians 6. The first piece is the “belt of truth.” Truth is desperately needed in our world, but now more than ever it seems inaccessible. There is a deep irony here. On the one hand, the internet has given us access to more knowledge than any other time in human history. At our fingertips we have “truth” within seconds. But the inundation of knowledge has proven to complicate truth rather than clarify it. Truth has been mixed with half-truth and downright lies, and it is difficult to know the difference. If we are going to navigate this post-truth world wisely, we must understand what it means to be a people of God who wear the belt of truth around us.
The Armor of God
This week we kick off our first week in an 8-week series here at SRBC! We are centering these next weeks around "Common Conversations" that we will be having at all age levels of our church. Our children, youth, young adults, and older adults will all have opportunities to discuss the various facets of Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. We hope that these conversations bleed into your daily conversations as families as well as with your coworkers and friends in the community. We will be talking about things like truth, justice, peace, faith, salvation, and more. Today, we begin the series with an overarching sermon about the strength of the Lord and where we find our own strength.
Listen Up
I am afraid, as a culture, we have forgotten how to listen. We are so busy making our own voices heard that we have stopped listening to what the other voices have to teach us. In particular, with the increased polarization of society, it is increasingly difficult for us to listen to the “other,” to the one who is not like us and does not think like us. Our tribes keep us comfortably sheltered in the echo-chambers of our minds, listening to the thoughts that reaffirm what we already believe and dismissing that which is challenging and different. The Scriptural narrative, however, teaches us a different way. A way in which the outsider gets a voice to challenge the insiders. When this happens in our own lives, are we prepared to listen?
Finding God in the Face of the Stranger
They say we live in a tribal culture, and I tend to agree. What I think they mean is that our so-called tribes have sharp divides that mark boundaries of what we do and do not believe, what we do and do not value, and what we do and do not do. Our tribes have clear-cut ways of keeping people in or kicking people out of the tribe. But let’s not kid ourselves, our so-called tribal cultural is only so metaphorically. In contrast, some of the Old Testament is written in a tribal time. Literally tribal; no metaphors needed. It turns out that their tribal culture has much to teach our tribal culture about where to find God. In what must be one of the most underrated and underreported aspects of Scripture, we find that the Hebrews often found God in the face of the stranger, the one who is not part of the tribe. Can you imagine?
Trinity Sunday
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday, which follows on the heels of Pentecost, which follows on the heels Easter. On Trinity Sunday, we have the opportunity to wrap together the lessons of Easter and Pentecost into a single doctrine. On Easter we discover that Jesus is Lord and to be worshiped. On Pentecost we discover that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit flows from the Father and the Son. And on Trinity Sunday, we discover that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live in an eternal unity. What this means for us, as creatures made in the image of God, is that we are communal to the core. We are created for community. To live otherwise is to live apart from our design.
Waiting on Pentecost
Fifty days after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples are still sitting and waiting for something to happen. Jesus has ascended to heaven, and they’re just waiting. Surely they want to know, “What’s next? Where do we go from here?” And then, without notice or forewarning, the building is filled with wind and fire, and the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit. I think most of us are in a place of waiting right now. Waiting on what’s next. Wondering where we go from here. On this Pentecost Sunday, may we follow the spirit’s prompting and discover what God has in store for us.
What Philip Learned
As we saw last Sunday, at the beginning of Acts 8 Philip makes it to Samaria, and they received him with joy. But Philip hasn't yet completed his training. He has more to learn from crisis he survived. By going to Samaria, Philip continues fulfilling the calling of Jesus back in Acts 1:8: to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth. This week, staying in Acts 8, we find that the ends of the earth are coming to Philip! On the road to Gaza he meets an Ethiopian Eunuch. He learns that the harvest is ready, that the world is open to God in a way we should not underestimate, and it is our job to continue to share the good news in good times and bad.
Moving from Crisis to Calling
Chapter 8 is a turning point in the book of Acts. To this point, the apostles and disciples have been hanging around Jerusalem and Judea. They have been teaching at the temple, making more disciples, and creating the bonds of community. Important stuff! But something needed to happen. Jesus had given them clear instruction before leaving. An unmistakable calling. They were to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth (1:8). They hadn’t left Judea. But with the death of Stephen at the end of chapter 7, crisis hits, and everyone is scattered. It was no longer safe to remain near Jerusalem, and so the first thing we read about is Philip preaching to Samaria. That’s right, the next stop on Jesus’ list. It is a crisis that drives the disciples back to their calling, and just like that they are back on track to fulfilling the mission that God has set before them.
Forgiveness
In Acts chapter 7, we read about the last moments of Stephen’s life. He is standing before a council that is prepared to stone him to death for blasphemy. In the midst of this assembly Stephen has a moment of clarity where I would argue he see three things. First, he looks up to heaven and is able to see Jesus seated at the right hand of the Father. Second, he sees through the actions of the council, stones in hand, and utters words nearly identical to Jesus at his death. He offers forgiveness. He pleads with the Father and Son on behalf of those who are about to kill him and asks that they not hold their sins against them. But why? That gets to the third thing. I have to imagine that he sees himself with clarity too. As one in need of forgiveness standing before the Father and the Son, he therefore offers it to any and all he encounters, even to his death.
Further Up and Further In
The phrase, “further up and further in,” comes from C. S. Lewis’ final book of his Narnia series in which the storyline heads toward a grand conclusion and a heavenly habitation. The phrase itself should be understood as a summons. It is a call to keep one’s eyes ever on goal that awaits us: union with God. It is God who stands up on the mountain and calls us to himself. And until we arrive at that place, we will always be “sojourners and exiles”, as 1 Peter puts it. We are midway through a journey that will take us past death and into life. We are called to higher things. And so as we journey on, there is always further up and further in.
The Imperishable Seed
Peter contrasts two kinds of life, and he reminds us that we have been given both. The first is a perishable life that we all know quite well. It is the life that is filled with good and beautiful things, much like the grass and the flowers of the field are good and beautiful for a time; but as the author says, one day they will wither and fall. As he puts it, this is the life made from “perishable seed.” But there is a second kind for those in Christ, a life made from “imperishable seed,” a life formed from the enduring word of God. The questions we must ask are, which of these lives will we invest in? Which will dictate our larger life choices? Are we living for that which perishes, or are we living for the eternal and the enduring?
Already But Not Yet
We are in a season that has traditionally been called “Eastertide.” The resurrection has left behind it a “wake” that has altered reality. Let us not live as if nothing ever happened. The Kingdom of God has already broken into our world! And yet . . . not yet. Or at least not completely. The kingdom is already, but not yet, here. Jesus has defeated death and sin, but we await death’s death blow. We live between the times. The question is, how ought we to live in such a time as this?
He is Risen!
Easter and Christmas are the two pillars of the Christian calendar. They root the church in two grand realities that tell us about the God we serve and shape what we believe and how we are to live. Today we celebrate Easter. We remind ourselves that no matter how dark the story gets, it isn’t over until resurrection happens. The resurrection of Christ is the first fruit of the redemption of the world. It is God’s down payment to us, where he says, I’m going to redeem this place, believe me. When we shout, “He is risen! He is risen indeed!”, we are remembering that the redemption of the world has begun in the resurrection of one man. Surely we need this message today.
Open Palms on Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday, in a vacuum, is a glorious day. The entrance of a king! It is the celebration of the one who brings peace, humbly riding on a donkey to take the throne that has long awaited him. But we know that the days that follow are anything but glorious. The days that follow are filled with anguish and death and even betrayal. As Holy Week processes, Palm Sunday looks like a distant memory in the rear-view mirror. The disconnect between it and Good Friday is difficult to square. And yet, this year of all years, we feel the disconnect. We do not celebrate in a vacuum but in reality just as Jesus’ celebration did not exist in a vacuum. And so, on this Palm Sunday we open our palms and stand with hands and hearts open to where God is leading us. We may not understand it, and it is not a road we would choose, but rest assured in this: all of the roads that God leads us to and through ultimately lead to resurrection.
We Will Rise Again
Resurrection is a common thing to talk about this time of year. Spring has begun and the world is waking from its winter slumber. We are in the middle of Lent, preparing for the power of the resurrection on Easter morning. But this year is different. As I’ve seen stated in one meme going around the internet: “I didn’t expect to give up so much for Lent!” We’ve given up closeness and touch; many have given up going too far from home; some have, unwillingly, given up jobs and the security of a regular income. Ezekiel 37 speaks of a promised return from exile, something we might better appreciate in the middle of this virus. Or as Jesus says about Lazarus, in John 11, we “will rise again." But the exile of Israel and the death of Lazarus have important lessons to teach us, and we must learn them while we still can. The questions we need to be asking are: What will we rise to when all is said and done? Who will we be on the other side of all of this? And what lessons must be learned from this time of exile?
Psalm 23
Psalm 23 is a passage that has made its way out of Christian and Jewish circles and into the popular culture at large. Its beauty and simplicity speak to the heart in metaphor and symbol. It is a poem, of course, and in an age that has little time for poetry, it is much needed. It speaks of shepherds and sheep, waters and paths, tables and cups. It is not despite the ordinary nature of the images but because they are ordinary that this poem speaks to the depths of souls. But in these troubled times, it is the line about the “valley of the shadow of death” that stands out most. David speaks not as one pontificating about the valley, but as one who writes the poem while walking through the valley. As we read God’s word this morning, may we find the green pastures and the still waters that the Lord desires to lead us toward.
Hope
Pastor Eric’s Sermon from Sunday, March 15th.
Obedience
I’ve heard more than a few people at this church say, “Obedience is God’s love language.” I like this! God desires our obedience. And, as we all know, sometimes obedience is hard. It requires doing things we don’t want to do or not doing things we want to do. And this is not easy stuff, as Paul tells us very clearly in Romans 7:19. However, believe it or not, this kind of obedience is not the ideal. What we are really striving for is a complete change of nature so that obedience to God doesn’t require muscle and strength of will but a simple, “Yes, Lord.” This kind of obedience, where one’s heart is turned toward God completely, is where our spiritual journeys should be heading. It’s that place where our desires and God’s desires sing in unison.
Temptation
To be human is to be tempted. Temptation is as old as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the garden of Eden and is as recent as the frustration that you did (or didn’t) resist on your morning commute to church. It is a regular part of life and it’s not going away any time soon. So what do we do? How do we cope with the temptations that plague us, and where do we turn when it gets the best of us? That is what we need to talk about this morning.